Comments: "I had no idea there were so many interesting sites so close to home!""Would love to hear more from Myra. Wonderful combination of geography and history." "Myra is such fun, I wish she were my neighbor.""Myra has amazing command of historical detail.""Your course was a delight, especially for those of us who are not native-born Texans...."

Traveling Texas heads westto the Alsatian village of Castroville, a hidden treasure nestled along the Medina river. Uvalde claims Vice President John Nance Garner, Governor Dolph Briscoe, and Dale Evans. A few miles south, we find Crystal City and learn the story of the WWII internment camp for German, Japanese, and Italian families. Our next stop is Brackettville and Fort Clark, home of the Black Seminole Indians and the Buffalo Soldiers. Del Rio is known for its beautiful San Felipe Springs and the medical charlatan John R. Brinkley. Along the Trans-Pecos we find the ancient rock art of peoples who disappeared without a trace, the saloon and courthouse of Judge Roy Bean, the Law West of the Pecos, and a portion of the 16th century route of Cabeza de Vaca, Texas’ first historian. The next portion of our trip slips into Marathon and Big Bend Country where we climb from the Chihuahuan Desert into the Chisos Mountains. From the resort town of Lajitas, we follow the River Road to Fort Leaton, where a former scalp hunter operated a trading post along the famous Chihuahua Trail.Our route turns north at Presidio to pass the abandoned silver mine center of Shafter and the 19th Cibolo Ranch that has been restored as a handsome resort. The high desert town of Marfa has become an artist enclave, but it continues to host the mysterious Marfa Lights. Fort Davis and McDonald Observatory offer a mountain high experience before we plunge down to the springs at Balmorhea and Pecos, home of cantaloupes and Billie Sol Estes. In the Permian Basin we hear the story of great oil and an Elizabethan stage. Our travels end with the beauty and mystery of the Panhandle Plains where Indian battles, cattle empires, and a world-class museum await our discovery.

SEMINAR OUTLINE

Settlement in Central Texas—follow a route north along I-35 that includes Round Rock, Georgetown, Salado, Waco, and Waxahachie

East Texas Treasures—circle historic Nacogdoches, spring-time lovelies of Palestine and Tyler, Civil War hub--Marshall, and former river port city of Jefferson

German Immigration—follow the settlement trail from Indianola to Victoria and Cuero, from New Braunfels to Fredericksburg

Spanish Colonial Rio Grande Valley—hug both sides of the river from Laredo to San Ygnacio, cross over at Guerrero to Mier, return to Roma, Los Ebanos, and Brownsville

Circling Central Texas--Six to eight sessions that travel south from Austin, exploring the history and good tales in locales such as Buda where a UT coed robbed the bank in 1925; Kyle, home of the namesake for A&M's Kyle Field; San Marcos, inhabited for over 10,000 years; Seguin named for a hero or a traitor? Lockhart, Victorian buildings make great movie sets; and Luling a cow town turned oil town. We go through Gruene and Wimberley on the way to the Texas Hill Country and LBJ's homeland. Marble Falls, known as the Blind Man's Town; Llano, land of rich mineral deposits; Burnet, site of an early Texas fort; and Lampassas, known for its healing springs . We go on to Bartlett, home of the "Four Gospels Railroad; Taylor, home of Dan Moody who won the first convictions against the KKK; and the Czech settlements blessed by their Painted Churches. LaGrange boasts a memorial to men in the Dawson Massacre and Black Bean Episode and is know for "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas;" Columbus almost won the state capital; Halletsville was named for a widow who made friends with the Tonkawas; Shiner the home of Spoetzl Brewery and the grand Sts. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church; Cuero was the center of the Sutton-Taylor Feud and the Chisholm Trail; Victoria was the headquarters of Texas' only Mexican colony and home to wealthy cattle ranchers. We go to Pierce founded by Shanghai Pierce, cowman; Columbia, first capital of the Republic of Texas; Blessing, which got it name out of gratitude for the arrival of the railroad; Matagorda, early Texas settlement at the mouth of the Colorado River; Palacios, early resort town. Port Lavaca developed after the Great Comanche Raid and had visitors such as Sally Skull and the Mustang Gray Rangers. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the winter home of Whooping Cranes; Goose Island State Park shows off a Live Oak about 2,000 years old; Fulton touts the grandest 1877 mansion on the coast; and Rockport reigns as "The Texas Riviera." The Irish settled in colonies around San Patricio and Refugio; Czech settlers' first home in the U.S was at Panna Maria. Castroville and D'Hanis were among the Alsatian settlements.

Texas’ Golden Triangle and The Big Thicket, ​2 one-hour sessions

Before Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange became known as “the largest petrochemical complex in the world,” The Big Thicket, one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world lay just to the north.Nancy Tevis and her nine children operated a ferry across the Neches River in the 1820s and Jayhawkers during the Civil War hid out in the nearby Big Thicket.Arthur Stillwell built a railroad from the Midwest and laid out an inland port, which he named Port Author.Henry Lutcher built a lumber empire in Orange, and his family created a cultural center in the downtown. Patillo Higgins, a reformed rough neck, was a laughing stock for insisting that oil lay under the salt down south of Beaumont until Spindletop blew in and changed the world.Myra McIlvain explores these stories of southeast Texas in depth through the past two centuries.

German Settlement in Texas,​2, one-hour sessions

Friedrich Ernst, who is still called the “Father of German Immigration,” wrote such glowing letters about his new home in Texas, that Germans began arriving in small groups. Henri Castro received a land grant west of San Antonio and brought settlers who established the Alsatian village of Castroville. Then, twenty-one German nobleman hoping to make a fortune by sending settlers to the cheap land in Texas, began a poorly-planned immigration program that led thousands of settlers––many to their death––to the barren shore of Matagorda Bay. Many remained on the coast and began a community that grew into the thriving seaport of Indianola. The first wave of immigrants who continued inland established New Braunfels in 1845 and then moved on the following year to begin Fredericksburg. German immigrants spread out across Texas coloring the landscape with their handwork and success.

Galveston has written its history large. From the days when it hosted Jean Lafitte and the largest slave market in the New World, to the arrival of the powerful who created the "Wall Street of the Southwest” on the The Strand, Galveston has molded the Texas story. Refusing to let the city die after the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, led to an engineering feat––a 17-foot seawall rose from the beach and the level of the island was lifted behind that barrier. After years of dominating the world of vice, the city discovered its Victorian beauty and rebounded as an oasis of 19th Century charm. After Hurricane Ike destroyed the hundred year-old oaks, the twisted trunks were sculpted into figures of art. The Phoenix continues to rise from the ashes.